Academy of St Martin in the Fields – review

Commemorating Britten is what every self-respecting ensemble is doing in this centenary year, but the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (ASMF) made their Britten UK tour all the more distinctive by commissioning from Sally Beamish a companion piece to Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge.

Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Cadogan Hall,

London

23 May

Box office:
020-7730 4500

Beamish's own predilection for the variation form made her a natural choice; moreover, as a former viola player with the academy, she knows their strength in depth. Hence, in her Variations on a Theme of Benjamin Britten, Beamish sometimes incorporated layer upon layer of strings with a single solo player to each line to create a complex tissue of sound, in addition to the usual five-part division of spoils. Taking a theme from the second Sea Interlude – Sunday Morning, from Peter Grimes – Beamish also emulated Britten's example in using dance forms for her sequence of variations. But, going beyond homage, she stamped her personality with beguiling intricacies of texture and virtuosity, as well as yearning in the Elegy and Requiem.

This well-constructed programme invoked Britten in other pieces, too. Violist Lawrence Power paid his tribute in Britten's Lachrymae, capturing perfectly its ghostly, sometimes manic, shadows, and imbuing the whole with tone-colours of exceptional artistry. Arvo Pärt never met Britten, but reflected his admiration in the Cantus in Memoriam, its bell chime lingering to haunt the air.

From the very outset in Elgar's Introduction and Allegro for Strings, the brightly resonant acoustic of the Wiltshire Music Centre's auditorium highlighted the ASMF's discipline and vibrancy, led by Stephanie Gonley. Britten's Variations gave the concert its brilliant climax, yet also served to reaffirm, in retrospect, the affinities explored by Beamish in hers.

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